Hulk

"A review by someone who was never into the comic"

First of all I can’t really say that I am much of a Hulkamaniac... no wait that’s the wrong guy... Anyway I used to read the Marvel comics as a kid and I can honestly say that Hulk was not one of my favorites. Recently however I’ve been getting into the Marvel scene once again thanks to the horrendously misjudged and underrated X-Men next dimension and the two excellent movies. Reading about the Hulk after playing through Serious Sam I thought this might be my cup of tea, more mindless no nonsense pure action, only with the Hulk. The game pays homage to the countless 2D arcade beat ‘em ups of the nineties by following their traditions in almost every aspect.

Plot 7/10
Basically this is a sequel of sorts to the Hollywood movie. I haven’t seen it but the game makes the plot of the movie sound very interesting. Basically Bruce returns to his home town where it all started after living as a vagabond in south America for a year while trying to escape his curse. After a sweet dream sequence where you play as the Hulk taking on the US army at a remote gas station in the middle of nowhere where you get to try out the Hulk’s abilities, Banner wakes up in his apartment. Someone is calling him, someone who can help him deal with the Hulk and remove him, permanently...
The manual tells you most of the plot and even though the cut scenes are beautiful and the voice acting excellent there’s very few surprises and by the time you reach the last few stages the plot has become little more than an excuse to keep smashing things up.

Gameplay 8/10
Easily one of the game’s stronger points.
As the Hulk you get to smash things up true Hulk style. No other game of this type let’s you cause this much havoc and break so many things. You get to tear up pillars, pick up cars, have your way with a train station, fight off tanks, and pretty much destroy everything in sight like a hurricane of destruction. Playing the Hulk feels like any beat em up in 3D so to speak of it as an apolcayptic Final Fight in 3D isn’t way off actually; but that’s not a bad thing. The Hulk has many moves and combos, and if you get tired of using them you can always pick up pieces of the environment and use as weapons. The controls are easy and the manual tells you the more advanced combos and special moves in case you need it. The only problem is that while Hulk plays excellent most of the time he has a bad habit of aiming at the closest thing possible, even if he’s facing the other way. This is usually not a problem but it is annoying when you pick up a drum of nuclear waste to hurl into the middle of a group of enemies straight ahead only for Hulk to turn around and throw it into a stack of garbage cans. Why is he even targeting the environment in the first place? Like I said this is usually not a problem and only pops up when there’s plenty of enemies and destroyable objects close to you at the same time.
As Banner the game takes a whole different point of view. Again I disagree with IGN’s point of view where the Banner missions is what holds the game back. This part of the game is what keeps The Hulk from being just another beat ‘em up. In my opinion the game would have turned into a tedious smash fest without the Banner missions to loosen things up a little. Playing as Banner is like playing an arcade version of Metal Gear, except you have no weapons other than your fists and your wits. You spend a lot of time sneaking around and hiding from guards. The controls are good and even with the RE style camera system you can switch to first person at any time to check your surroundings. In my opinion the Banner stages could have been longer or more frequent.

Graphics 8/10
Very cool cel shaded look that fits the comic book nature of the Hulk just fine. The cutscenes are especially well made and you wish the actual game had the same level of details and lightning. However this is no way near anything that the xbox can come up with, so while the graphics are nice and all it’s hardly pushing the box very far. The framerate when you’re playing is nice and constant even with all that havoc going on but the ingame cut scenes tend to chop up quite a bit which seems strange. Also they really should have added more variation among the enemies, many of the look exactly the same but carry different weapons. Not even color variations are offered on most of them.

Sound 8/10
The sound is good but not stellar. The Hulk never says anything which is a bit of a let down, just hearing him growl and grunt makes him seem incredibly one dimensional in comparison to every other character in the game who all have a lot to say. You will hear everything from Banner saying “do that again and you’ll regret it” after being knocked down to enemy soldiers panicking screaming “Damn it! Now you’ve made him angry!” when Hulk goes into Rage mode. It is really cool to listen to the enemies since they all have something to say and they all have plenty of comments. I still would have liked the Hulk to have cool comments like “Hulk Smash!” or “Puny humans!” just like everybody else but you can’t have everything. The musical score does it’s job well in setting the mood but it’s nothing really memorable about it. Just good atmospherical music most of the time. The voice actors are good also and the Banner voice-over really helps making his character more interesting and the Hulk sounds like the Hulk.

Overall 8/10
You will easily beat this game in a day or two on the easy setting but there’s plenty to come back for. The unlockables, the sheer intensity of playing as the Hulk and the espionage missions of Banner, which is the only place where you can access the terminals for certain unlockables, will have you coming back for more. The game is good as a beat em up but not up there with greats like Battle Circuit, Final Fight and Streets of Rage but the Banner missions and playing as the Hulk who can literally obliterate his surroundings adds a dimension those games never had. Couple that with the bonus modes like Hulk Smash mode and you got yourself quite an experience. If you’re a Hulk fan, if you were thrilled by the movie, enjoy mindless action games or simply have every Marvel title out there then this game is for you.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/03, Updated 06/29/03